This is one of my mom’s signature dishes… she cooks it all the time, especially if we need to cook for a crowd. We have cooked this recipe at the Yoga Center, when we’ve had to cook for yoga friends while traveling and even for my niece and nephew. They love saucy tofu, especially when mixed into a nice helping of rice.

It’s a simple, kinda one-pot dish… kinda, because my mom likes to sear the tofu in a skillet before adding to the stew. This gives the tofu a chewy consistency that I find more palatable and interesting. And again… think of tofu as a blank canvas. It will taste just as good as the seasonings you use on it.

Slice each tofu block in 4 slices. Place slices in a baking sheet lined with 2-3 paper towels. Cover with 2-3 additional paper towels, top with an additional baking sheet and weigh with something heavy. Drain weighed tofu slices for about 30-60 minutes.

After tofu slices are drained, season liberally with Garlic and Herbs seasoning. Cook tofu slices in a dry non-stick skillet. After you’ve placed them on the skillet, leave them for a while without touching them. The crust they will develop will prevent them from sticking to the skillet and make it easier to turn them. Sear them on both sides. Set aside to cool off.

In a large pot over medium heat, pour olive oil. Mix in the onions, peppers and sofrito, and vegetable bouillon cube. Add the garlic and salt and pepper to taste.

When onions and peppers have softened, add in the potatoes. Stir a few times for them to start cooking a bit.

Add the tomatoes, olives or capers, bay leaves and paprika. If there is not enough liquid for the potatoes to cook in, add some water, until the potatoes are covered. Add the vinegar. Cover the pot and allow it to simmer to cook.

Take the cooled tofu slices and slice them again into smaller pieces. I slice each piece into 4 smaller pieces, which yield me about 32 tofu pieces total. But if you feel you want the pieces larger or smaller, slice them to your desired size. It’s your stew, your tofu…

When the stew has cooked for about 20 minutes already, add the tofu pieces to warm up with the sauce and potatoes. Simmer in the covered pot for about 10 more minutes, about 30 minutes total time or until potatoes are fork tender.

Like this:

Poke is not something you used to do on Facebook… it’s a salad served raw in Hawaii. From the looks of it, it’s the Hawaiian ceviche and the correct pronunciation is Poke /poʊˈkeɪ/.

When I traveled to Peru, I had delicious tofu ceviche and white mushroom ceviche. Both vegan, and both tasted as authentic as ceviche made with fish. So I decided our Hawaiian ceviche, or poke, would include both tofu and mushrooms. To add more interest, color and crunch, I thought I would include some broccoli florets into the mix.

This is a simple dish with many components coming together. Feel free to make some parts the night before you’re serving this and finish it off the day of with the broccoli and tossing it all together in the marinade. This way the tofu marinates overnight and the broccoli is served fresh – the best of both worlds.

TOFU MUSHROOM POKE

2 blocks of extra-firm tofu

1 pint of cremini mushrooms, quartered

1 bunch of broccoli, florets only cut in half or thirds

2 medium carrots, peeled and shredded

2 shallots, finely minced

4-6 scallions, thinly sliced

About ¼ cup Garlic and Herb Seasonings

3 garlic cloves, grated

2 inch piece of ginger, peeled and grated

½ cup olive oil

¼ cup tamari

2 tbs toasted sesame oil

The juice of 2 limes

Salt to taste

Slice each tofu block in 4 slices. Place slices in a baking sheet lined with 2-3 paper towels. Cover with 2-3 additional paper towels, top with an additional baking sheet and weigh with something heavy. Drain weighed tofu slices for about 30-60 minutes.

After tofu slices are drained, season liberally with Garlic and Herbs seasoning. Cook tofu slices in a dry non-stick skillet. After you’ve placed them on the skillet, leave them for a while without touching them. The crust they will develop will prevent them from sticking to the skillet and make it easier to turn them. Sear them on both sides. Set aside to cool off.

Cut each slice of tofu in 12 pieces – cut into 3 pieces on the long side. Cut those 3 strips in half and then those halves in half again. Set aside.

Mix the marinate in a container with a lid that you can cover and marinate tofu for a while – tamari, olive oil, sesame oil, shallots, scallions, grated garlic, grated ginger, lime juice. Add tofu slices to marinate. Add shredded carrots. Marinate for about 4 hours or even overnight in the fridge.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Blanch broccoli florets for about 1 minute, until they turn bright green. Scoop them out of the boiling water and shock them in a bowl filled with salted ice water. This will stop the cooking and set the bright green color. Working in batches will help you control the blanching process and avoid any over cooking. When broccoli is cooled, transfer to a colander for the florets to drain well and dry.

About 2 hours before serving, combine marinated tofu/carrots mix with quartered mushrooms, cooked broccoli florets and sliced scallions. Toss well to combine and allow marinate all together. Toss every 20 minutes to make sure all components are marinated.

Like this:

This was one of the main dishes we created for our 3rd KarmaFree Cooking class recently. We were super excited because we got picked up by the local newspaper El Nuevo Día and we received tons of calls from people interested. We hosted 7 students who are not vegetarian, but are very interested in following a more natural and meat-free diet. I was thrilled!!

Angie is the expert among us making tofu scramble… but I made sure the ingredients were colorful, vibrant and easy to find in any supermarket.

In a large skillet over medium high heat, add the olive oil, a pat of butter and add the onions and peppers to soften. Add the bouillon cube too and dissolve it in the mixture.

Drain the tofu as much as you can. In a bowl, pat it with a few paper towels. Mash the tofu and add to the onions and peppers in the skillet. Miox it well so the tofu starts infusing itself with the flavors in the skillet.

Season with black pepper and turmeric. Mix well.

Add the tomatoes and spinach to the mixture. Mix it all well and cover for a few minutes so the spinach wilts .

Uncover and raise the heat a bit so the liquid that most probably accumulated at the bottom can evaporate a bit.

We were honored to be featured in El Nuevo Día, Puerto Rico’s largest newspaper. The turnout was great – many people who do not consider themselves vegetarian yet wanting to learn about a more natural and meat-free lifestyle. To me that reads SUCCESS because that’s exactly the goal of KarmaFree Cooking… teaching people that a vegetarian lifestyle is doable and delicious.

I want to share a recap of the recipes shared at the class. Some are new, some are KarmaFree classics and some are updates on favorites of all of us.

We also talked about how to best combine fruits for your fruit salads and juices

If you live in Puerto Rico, hope you can join us for our next KarmaFree Cooking class. If you are not so lucky to live in Puerto Rico, rest assured we’ll be sharing the recipes here on the blog. But doing it in person, as part of our group and then tasting the results of your labor is a whole different experience.

Thanks a lot to Angie and my mom who always help and thanks a bunch to the class attendants who always make giving these courses a whole lotta fun.

Celebrate the moms in your life with a delicious breakfast in bed feast, filled with lots of love and great vibes. This will be KarmaFree Cooking’s 3rd vegetarian class… we are so excited you keep us asking for more!!!!

Come over to our kitchen and learn some easy-to-make vegetarian recipes that are all delicious. You’ll learn also some new techniques and ingredients you can integrate into your daily vegetarian lifestyle.

The menu for this cooking class will be:

Tofu Scramble with Mixed Vegetables

Mustard Roasted Breakfast Potatoes

Fruit Salad and some ideas on how to best combine fruits for maximum nutrition

Breakfast Smoothie and some information on add-ins you can incorporate to boost the power of that breakfast drink

Carrot Muffins with Creamy Cream Cheese Frosting

Class will be held in Spanish, but if you are not fluent, we can certainly accommodate any English-speaking students. Just let us know in advance to be prepared with recipe handouts, etc.